Suet feeders for feeding birds are well known in the art and used extensively. Although some people will make their own suet and hang it out on a piece of string or supported in a different fashion, most people cannot be bothered to do so. Knowingly, there is a substantial market for prepackaged suet. Typically, the prepackaged suet comes in a plastic container with a layer of flexible plastic material sealed thereover to enclose the suet.
In order to accommodate this prepackaged suet, various simple feeders have been utilized. In particular, a popular arrangement is the use of a woven metallic wire cage to which a hanger is attached. In order to utilize the metal cage, one removes the suet from the package and inserts it into the metal cage, closes the same and it is hung from a suitable hook or the like. Birds can access the suet through the openings between the wires.
Such an arrangement is useful in that it provides a suet feeder which is inexpensive. However, a problem associated with the metal cages is the mess which typically occurs when one grips the open package by hand, since the work with the hand would tend to melt the fat component of the suet.
A further disadvantage of such an arrangement is that the suet is frequently eaten by undesired marauders such as squirrels. One or two squirrels can easily eat the contents of a single suet package.
A different approach to this problem is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 8,794,184, the teachings of which are hereby incorporated by reference. This patent shows a suet feeder which encloses the suet package within a housing and shroud. The shroud provides a number of access openings to the suet package. While the arrangement shown therein provides a reasonably squirrel proof arrangement, the stationary suet package is susceptible to only partially being eaten with a fair degree of waste. In other words the suet which is not directly accessible from the suet access openings has not yet been eaten. The birds can eat only straight ahead and do not angle upwardly or downwardly to gain access to the suet.
A further problem with the arrangement as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 8,794,184 is that manual handling of the suet package is generally required and for many people this is disagreable.